


With All Your Good Intentions

by lady_krysis (saekhwa)



Category: NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: 100-1000 Words, Canon Character of Color, Character of Color, Dark Agenda, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e11 Breach, Gen, POV Character of Color
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-25
Updated: 2010-03-25
Packaged: 2017-10-08 07:37:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saekhwa/pseuds/lady_krysis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam isn't running to forget; he runs to remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With All Your Good Intentions

**Author's Note:**

> Episode tag to 1.11 "Breach." This was written for [](http://dark-agenda.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**dark_agenda**](http://dark-agenda.dreamwidth.org/)'s [Remix 2010 Challenge](http://dark-agenda.dreamwidth.org/4942.html).

What Sam remembers is this: the southern part of Sudan is wet. It's rain-drenched six months out of the year, and all that rain has resulted in miles and miles of swamp lands and rain forests. Sam saw so many beautiful places when he was a SEAL, and despite the memories, southern Sudan will always be one of those beautiful places.

It's marked, though, with words like the _Pan Sahel Initiative_, like _Lost Boys of Sudan_, like _Janjaweed_, like the muffled sound of rifle fire and the dull thud of bodies hitting the floor.

Sam doesn't run in an effort to escape the memories—that's the wrong way to go—and he doesn't run to punish himself either. He runs so he can get down to the basics, to muscle and bone and heart.

Eight years ago, Sam was part of a team that rescued several aid workers, and eight years ago, Sam had smuggled a child to Somalia because he didn't know how to tell an eight-year old boy, _I killed your father_. But Sam's mother had given him all the words he'd needed: "Look, baby, I know what kind of boy I raised, but if you need to be reminded of that, then let me tell you. I raised a boy who knows wrong from right and isn't afraid to do the right thing. I _also_ raised a boy who's comin' to his mama's house this weekend to help weed the garden."

Sam remembers that he laughed and the sound was probably brittle and sad, but he remembers that telling his mama, "I love you," always left him warm, and his mama's firm, "Be safe," was all he needed to hear. Sam wanted to share his mama's cooking with Mowhad; he wanted to share everything that he could.

He started with the Gulf of Aden. Moe stared at it, eyes wide, like he'd never seen anything so big, like it was going to swallow him up any second. Sam remembers the slim feel of Moe's shoulder when he set his hand on it and squeezed. Sam offered Moe a smile, and in that smile, he may have quietly promised a lot of things.

Then they turned their eyes to the horizon, watching a wave crest and then crash only to bear itself up again.


End file.
